Parents Avoid Chicago Trip

From coast to coast, parents not at the tender mercies of the Chicago Teachers Union are taking control of their children’s education.

“A national, statistically representative survey of mothers of school-aged children has found 71 percent say school vouchers should be available to all families,regardless of income or a child’s special needs,” Joy Pullman reported in the School Reform News. “Sixty-one percent of moms and 55 percent of all adults polled nationally favor a school voucher system that would allow tax dollars to follow children to the school of their parents’ choice, private or public.”

School Reform News is published by the Heartland Institute. The September issue gives a report on the steps that parents are taking to help give their children a better education:

In the Golden State, “A judge has ruled in favor of parents hoping to take over low-performing Desert Trails Elementary in Adelanto, California under the state’s Parent Trigger law,” Mary Petrides Tillotson reports. “Overall, it’s a landmark ruling,” Gloria Romero, head of California’s Democrats for Education Reform and the law’s author said. “It’s a new day in California, and it’s one that upholds the rights of parents to truly become the architects of their children’s educational futures.” “The law lets parents take over an underperforming school if at least 51 percent sign a petition and bring it to their school board,” Tillotson writes.

Meanwhile, in the Pelican State, “More than 10,000 students applied to attend private schools this fall under Louisiana’s statewide voucher program, five times more than State Superintendent John White anticipated,” Vicki Alger reported.

“Charter school K-12 enrollment has nearly doubled over the past decade in Minnesota, the first state to allow charter schools, according to a new analysis of state education department data by the Center for School Change,” Abigail Wood reports. “The report shows nearly 19,000 more students enrolled in charter K-12 schools in 2011–12 compared with a decade before, while district enrollment declined by more than 45,000 students over the same period.”

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